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- Why did you pursue an MPH?
- Was obtaining an MPH worth it?
- What did obtaining an MPH do to your student debt?
- Pros of obtaining an MPH?
- Cons of obtaining an MPH?
MPH To whoever has both an MD and MPH......
- Thread starter doctorDoctor.
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If you are an MD (hugely different than if the MPH is your terminal degree), my opinion is that you should not get an MPH simply for the letters (or the fact that you see a lot of public health professionals with it, and think that it's the logical step for you). You should do it for the perspective and skill set it would give you. I think an MPH can be useful to learn quantitative skills that would be hard to learn on your own time, such as epidemiology and biostatistics. The essential question you must answer is what do you want from the MPH. If you want epi/biostat skills, great. If you want to learn more about public health and get the perspective of population health, then maybe you'd be better off reading public health literature and journals like the Lancet over the course of a year (a lot of MPH courses will have you read some of these same articles and textbooks).
If you do an MPH, my advice would be not to do it before med school, b/c then it'll take 2 years to complete. If you do it between your 3rd and 4th your of med school (which lots of people do), or after/during residency, programs let you take it in a year (they rush you through it, but the extra year saved is extremely worth it). If you're interested in research, you might be better off spending a year doing a fellowship (like the NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellowship) where you're being mentored by people and picking up skills on the job.
As for debt, it depends where you do it. If you do it at Hopkins and don't get much scholarship, you're looking at possibly an extra $50k-$70k extra in debt.
If you do an MPH, my advice would be not to do it before med school, b/c then it'll take 2 years to complete. If you do it between your 3rd and 4th your of med school (which lots of people do), or after/during residency, programs let you take it in a year (they rush you through it, but the extra year saved is extremely worth it). If you're interested in research, you might be better off spending a year doing a fellowship (like the NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellowship) where you're being mentored by people and picking up skills on the job.
As for debt, it depends where you do it. If you do it at Hopkins and don't get much scholarship, you're looking at possibly an extra $50k-$70k extra in debt.
Kind of expanding on what I said above, but in my opinion, starting med school and then aiming to get some really solid public health experience (like doing an internship with the WHO or CDC between 3rd and 4th year of med school, which lots of people do) would be better than doing an MPH b/c with the internship, you're picking up valuable on-the-job skills. Lots of people will have MD/MPHs, so you'll want to have something that sets you apart (i.e., a skill set, which you pick up from experience). Or you could do both the MPH and the internship. Or you could just try and do an internship at one of those organizations after your 1st summer of med school. There's no set way to go about these things. On the pro side, you go to a school like Harvard for your MPH and make ballin' awesome connections that get you your dream job, then that also works out well.
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If I want to do an MPH separate from my MD (for a variety of reasons), will medical schools just let me take a year or two off to pursue that MPH? Or do I have to do an MPH program within my medical school as an MD/MPH? If for example I go to a medical school in Virginia but was accepted to Emory during my 2nd or 3rd year, does my medical school allow me to take a year off to go get a degree at Emory?
Yup absolutely, this is very common. Both ways can be done, but I see lots more people do it at other schools between 3rd and 4th year, rather than at their home school (unless they're at a school like Hopkins).
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That's quite relieving to hear. Thanks.
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I think it's a waste of time.
Non-MD do it because it give them access to healthcare/ public health jobs.
MD do it for multiple reasons
1. By default a residency pay for it.
2. They think it will make them better at understanding and critically appraising articles etc...
3. Extra qualification for research and teaching privileges
I think most MDs are wasting their time with MPH for the following reasons
MPH by definition is concerns about public health and population studies. Only If you want career in public health then it's worth it.
Otherwise as a clinical physician if you want a degree for understanding, designing and conducting clinical trials then it's better to take a degree such as master of clinical research or clinical trials
However if your are interested in observational studies and epidemiology like some physician scientists and epidemiology then a master in science of epidemiology.
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- Why did you pursue an MPH? - It was part of the preventive medicine residency program that I completed.
- Was obtaining an MPH worth it? - Absolutely.
- What did obtaining an MPH do to your student debt? - No change.
- Pros of obtaining an MPH? - Learned a lot; Expanded my skill set; Increased my marketability for jobs with a public health or health management component; Grew my professional network; Got some publications.
- Cons of obtaining an MPH? - None.
